I-Corps: Strain-Sensing Smart Skin - a New Technology for Strain Measurement

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发使用碳纳米管的应变测量技术。应变测量广泛用于各种重工业，包括航空航天、桥梁维护、管道和化工厂安全检查、风力涡轮机监测等。需要应变技术来测试关键结构，并对暴露在大应力/应变下的基础设施进行例行维护检查。这项拟议的技术是一种应变传感智能皮肤，是一种使用碳纳米管的非接触式激光传感器。传感器的性能可以改进无损评估和测试，从而降低故障率并提高关键基础设施的安全性。由于许多应用涉及安全认证，应变测量在帮助防止灾难性的结构故障方面具有巨大的社会价值，这些故障可能会夺走人的生命并导致巨大的成本。i-Corps项目基于一种名为应变传感智能皮肤的应变测量技术的开发。该技术使用由嵌入在聚合物主体中的单壁碳纳米管组成的感应层，该主体应用于金属、塑料、复合或水泥基材的表面。固化后，衬底中的后续应变通过薄膜传输到纳米管，扰乱它们的电子结构，并以系统和可预测的方式改变其特征的近红外发射。在任何感兴趣的点上的激光激发都会在这些位置诱导纳米管的发射，并对发射的光进行光谱分析以揭示局部应变值。应变值可以被编辑成二维应变图。这种方法可能比数字图像相关(DIC)具有显著的优势，数字图像相关(DIC)是工业上唯一常用的应变测绘方法。DIC要求标本保持在持续观察下，而拟议的技术没有这一要求。这意味着拟议的技术可以用来测量在服役中积累的应变(例如，飞机的地面维护检查)。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of strain measurement technology that uses carbon nanotubes. Strain measurements are used in a wide variety of heavy industries, including aerospace, bridge maintenance, pipeline and chemical plant safety inspections, wind turbine monitoring, and others. Strain technologies are needed for testing critical structures and for routine maintenance inspections of infrastructure exposed to large stresses/strains. The proposed technology is a strain-sensing smart skin, a non-contact, laser-based sensor that uses carbon nanotubes. The sensor's performance may allow improved non-destructive evaluation and testing, leading to reduced failure rates and greater safety of critical infrastructure. Because many of the applications involve safety certifications, strain measurements have great societal value in helping to prevent catastrophic structural failures that may claim human life and incur significant costs.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a strain measurement technology called strain-sensing smart skin. The technology uses a sensing layer consisting of single-wall carbon nanotubes embedded in a polymeric host that is applied to the surface of metallic, plastic, composite, or cement-based substrates. After curing, subsequent strains in the substrate are transmitted through the film to the nanotubes, perturbing their electronic structures and shifting their characteristic near-infrared emission in systematic and predictable ways. Laser excitation at any points of interest induces emission the from nanotubes at those locations, and the emitted light is spectrally analyzed to reveal the local strain value. The strain values may be compiled to form two-dimensional strain maps. This method may have a significant advantage over digital image correlation (DIC), the only strain mapping method in common industrial use. DIC requires the specimen to stay under constant observation while the proposed technology does not have this requirement. This means that the proposed technology may be used to measure strains that have accumulated in service (e.g., ground maintenance inspections of aircraft).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.